Soyo TechAid PCI Diagnostic Card - Decode POST!

by Soyo

Product Details

Product Manual [720kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• ASIN: B000234U3I
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 7, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

TechAID PCI Card – A shortcut to diagnosing all of your hardware problems! Just plug into the PCI slot to conduct a complete hardware diagnostic test.

The purpose of the SOYO TechAID (debug card) is to make the difficult troubleshooting procedure easier and quicker. This debugging card will assist any technicians (from novice to advance users) in accurately and conveniently locating their hardware problems faster, cutting down the troubleshooting time drastically simply by displaying an easy to follow POST (Power On Self Test) code on its display. ct.

Product Description

TROUBLE-SHOOTER! The Soyo TechAID Diagnostic Card is an efficient way to detect computer hardware problems. Simply plug it into the PCI slot and a complete diagnostic test will detect the defective hardware. This debugging card will assist any technician (from novice to advance user) in accurately locating a hardware problem faster, by displaying an easy-to-follow POST (Power On Self Test) code on its display. BE SMART...BUY IT TODAY!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can't believe I didn't buy one before now, December 15, 2005

By 

thinkingbear (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Soyo TechAid PCI Diagnostic Card - Decode POST! (Electronics)

I build myself a new system every two years or so and in between I am constantly fiddling. Sometimes things go wrong, horribly, terribly wrong: no video, no BIOS beeps, just a dead system. I would lose whole weekends following trouble-shooting flowcharts and running to the local electronics store for new parts to swap in just to see if that part was causing the problem.

Well, no more. Just plugged the Soyo Techaid in a PCI slot of my current $2500 paperweight, applied power, and I can see in less than a second that my +3V3SB, +3.3V, +5V, +12V, and -12V are all stable, but my POST (Power On Self Test) is terminating prematurely with error code FF indicating CPU failure, and saving me the hassle of swapping out motherboard, PSU, video cards, and RAM before having some idea what the problem might be.

While there are other tools out there with a lot more features like video out, logging by serial port, even forced booting with no RAM, they are geared towards professionals and obviously cost a lot more. For as often as I need help the Techaid is good balance of cost and features.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely a useful time-saving tool, June 19, 2005

By 

Saxman642 (Trinidad and Tobago) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Soyo TechAid PCI Diagnostic Card - Decode POST! (Electronics)

This diagnostic card will save you time when coming across suspect dead motherboards or cpus; or possibly defective RAM. I was able to save to diagnose a dead socket 370 cpu the first time I used it. Saved me close to half hour of reseating parts (memory, board jumpers, etc).

Only thing: do not becom dependent on it. Use it to get to accurately determine where to attack the problem, and use your other troubleshooting methods alongside it.

Overall, a very good tool to have.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Port 80 card, February 18, 2008

By 

Displaced Montanan (Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soyo TechAid PCI Diagnostic Card - Decode POST! (Electronics)

I have used port 80 cards for years for developing device drivers and debugging kernel problems. This particular model has several features which I found useful. The display is on both sides of the board, making it easy to read from any location in the case. The external cable allows the case to be closed and still have access to the display.

I have been using this model for three weeks and it has worked as advertised.

There have been several negative comments about the card. These cards work by displaying the contents of address 80 in the I/O address space. If they are displaying 0xff after booting it is probably because the bios does not use port 80 to display debug information and not due to any fault of the card.